Service charges in Dubai, read properly.

What service charges are

When you own an apartment or a villa in a managed community in Dubai, you own your unit and a share of everything around it: lobbies, lifts, pools, gyms, gardens, façades, security, the systems that keep the building running. Service charges are your contribution to maintaining and operating those shared parts.

They are typically calculated on the size of your unit and billed per year, often in instalments. They are paid by the owner, not the tenant. For a Moroccan owner living in Manchester, Toronto or Riyadh, they are the most predictable line in the budget, provided you know them before you sign.

Villas in gated communities follow the same principle, with a different mix of costs: roads, landscaping, community facilities and security rather than lifts and lobbies. The approved budget tells you exactly what you are contributing to.

What they usually cover

The exact scope depends on the building and the community, and the budget breaks it down line by line. In most residential buildings, you will find the same families of costs.

What service charges do not cover is just as useful to know: the inside of your own unit, your appliances, your electricity and water consumption, district cooling consumption where billed separately, and any furnishing or management you arrange for a rental. Those are the owner's or the occupant's own costs.

• Cleaning and upkeep of common areas
• Security and concierge services
• Maintenance of lifts, air-conditioning plant, fire and safety systems
• Landscaping, pools and shared amenities
• Insurance of the building structure
• Management fees and a reserve fund for future major works

How RERA regulates them

Service charges in Dubai are not set freely. They are approved by RERA, the regulatory arm of the Dubai Land Department, and published in the RERA Service Charge Index. This means you can look up the approved charges for a project before buying, and compare buildings on the same basis.

Owners' associations and the management companies that run buildings are overseen through Mollak, the official system that handles budgets, invoicing and owner accounts. In practice, your invoices and payments are tracked there, which gives a clear and traceable record. I find this framework genuinely reassuring for owners who manage everything from abroad.

Owners also have a voice. Owners' associations bring together the owners of a building, and their role is to oversee how the building is run and how the budget is spent. If you live abroad, you can follow the association's communications and, where the rules allow, take part through a representative.

Reading them before you buy

When I shortlist a property, I always add the service charges to the file. For a ready property, I use the approved figures for the building. For an off-plan project, the final budget is set closer to completion, so I look at comparable completed buildings and at the amenities planned, because a building with an extensive amenity offer will cost more to run.

The right question is not whether a charge is high or low in absolute terms, but whether it matches what the building offers and what your tenants or your family will value. A well-run building with a strong reserve fund protects the long-term condition, and therefore the value, of your property.

When comparing two properties, put the service charges side by side with the size, the amenities and the target tenant. A slightly higher charge in a building with a well-maintained pool, gym and concierge may be exactly what attracts quality tenants. A lower charge in a building with fewer services can suit a different profile. Neither is better in itself; the question is fit.

Service charges and your rental plan

If you plan to let the property, service charges come out of your gross rent, together with any management fee, maintenance and periods without a tenant. They belong in your net calculation from day one. For long-term rentals registered through Ejari, the owner keeps paying the service charges; for a holiday home under a Department of Economy and Tourism permit, the same applies, and running costs are usually higher.

Remember too that service charges are revised when the approved budget changes. Building a small margin into your annual plan avoids any surprise, and the published index lets you see how charges evolve over the years.

I go through both options in letting your Dubai property, and the wider picture of owning costs and taxes in taxes and costs of owning in Dubai.

Paying from abroad and staying up to date

Service charges can be paid by international transfer or through the payment options offered by the management company. When you live abroad, the simplest discipline is to set a reminder for each instalment and keep the receipts with your property file. Unpaid charges can create complications later, including when you sell, because the developer or management will require the account to be settled.

A tip from experience: have the invoices sent to an email address you check regularly, and give your property manager or a trusted relative visibility on them. Owners abroad who miss an instalment usually do so because the reminder went to an old address, not because they forgot.

That last point matters: when you eventually sell, the developer's No Objection Certificate generally requires that service charges are paid up. I explain the full process in selling your Dubai property from abroad.

Let's look at the numbers together

If you are comparing two or three buildings, send them to me and I will set their service charges side by side with what each one offers. Book a free 30-minute call or write to me on WhatsApp at +971 55 772 2710.